N In addition to the nervousness, the weather dominated this matchday. This is not surprising, for winter consists at its core of reluctance. That cold, snow and ice are part of it, however, had largely been forgotten in recent years.
And so one suspects that Bundesliga players had also seen the images of people floundering helplessly on sidewalks and overwhelmed emergency rooms in the news, and accordingly decided that they did not want to belong to those for whom the day would end with bones in a cast, plastered, or perhaps even nailed back together.
That, in itself, wasn’t a bad idea; unfortunately, on this Saturday there was apparently also the resolve not to make any mistake that might end up causing relegation or missing out on international competitions – which, fourteen matchdays before the end of the season, seems a little irrational; on the other hand, the early January weeks had already shown convincingly that this 2026 has the potential to become the year in which really every insane thought could be put into practice.
To be on the safe side, just shuffling the ball back and forth a bit and letting oneself be carried along by gloomy thoughts about the future of humanity or the club seemed to be the right game-day plan. And so, for 25 minutes in the stadiums of Frankfurt, Leipzig, Bremen, Hoffenheim and Augsburg, absolutely nothing happened, until Leverkusen’s Arthur finally scored the first, quite pretty goal.
The Dream of the Well-Tempered Hall
On the other hand: of course, no one really knows exactly what Bundesliga players think, perhaps everyone was simply cold, or they had slept badly. You know, weather does unpleasant things to people and it also makes them nervous.
Maybe the kickers, while warily studying the grass, had merely dreamed of having chosen another sport. Of course one that is played in well-tempered halls at least in winter, accompanied by ovations from not-ice-cold fans.
Oops, that’s not new; the last DFB Hallenpokal is, however, already 25 years and 17 days ago. By the way, none of the big favorites won that time, but (in the final against Werder) SpVgg Unterhaching, which nowadays plays in the Regionalliga Bayern, did.
Or rather, it doesn’t play, because in the Bavarian fourth division the competition resumes only on February 20.
